James Cracknell

James Cracknell
Cracknell at the triathlon, 2007
nation	United Kingdom
birthday	May 5th 1972
place of birth	Sutton ,  UK
size	192 cm
Weight	100 kg
Career
discipline	Rowing , belt
society	Leander Club
National squad	since 1989
status	resigned
End of career	2004
Medal table
Olympic Summer Games 2 × 0 × 0 × Rowing World Championships 6 × 0 × 0 × Junior World Championships 1 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold 2000 Sydney Foursome without a helmsman gold 2004 Athens Foursome without a helmsman  World championships gold 1997 Aiguebelette Foursome without a helmsman gold 1998 Cologne Foursome without a helmsman gold 1999 St. Catharines Foursome without a helmsman gold 2001 Lucerne Two without a helmsman gold 2001 Lucerne Two with a helmsman gold 2002 Seville Two without a helmsman  Junior World Championships gold 1990 Aiguebelette Foursome without a helmsman
Last change: January 23, 2016

James Cracknell OBE (born May 5, 1972 in Sutton , United Kingdom ) is a retired British rower , two-time gold medalist at the Olympics and today's adventurer.

Career as a rower

In his early career, Cracknell competed four times in the World Rowing Championships between 1991 and 1995 without winning a medal. For the 1995 season he temporarily switched from belt to skull camp. At his first Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 , he took part in a double scull with Bob Thatcher and reached 17th place.

In the following 1997 season, Cracknell switched back to the four without a helmsman . Together with Matthew Pinsent , Sir Steven Redgrave and Tim Foster (1997 and 1998) and Ed Coode (1999), he formed a very successful team and was able to become rowing world champion three years in a row. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the team won the gold medal in the four without a helmsman.

Cracknell and Pinsent then moved into the two without a helmsman , as Redgrave after his fifth Olympic gold medal and Foster ended their active careers and the gold four broke up. At the 2001 World Rowing Championships in Lucerne, they won the world championship title in two with a helmsman and in two without a helmsman within a day , each with only a small lead over the second-placed boats. While they were able to repeat the world championship title in two without a helmsman at the following rowing world championships in Seville in 2002 , they did not succeed in 2003. At the World Championships in Milan they only finished fourth and then rose again in view of the upcoming 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens in the four-man without helmsman with Steve Williams and Alex Partridge , who was later replaced by Ed Coode due to injury. With a lead of only eight hundredths of a second, Cracknell, Pinsent, Coode and Williams won the gold medal in Athens ahead of last year's world champion from Canada. Cracknell then interrupted his active career as a rower. However, there was no later continuation.

For his achievements in rowing, Cracknell was awarded the Order of Merit Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 2000 . In 2004, after her second Olympic victory, she was awarded the Office of the British Empire (OBE). He started for the Leander Club in Henley-on-Thames .

As the oldest participant of all time, Cracknell won the traditional annual rowing duel between the universities of Cambridge and Oxford on the Thames as a philosophy student with Cambridge in 2019 .

Career as an adventurer

In the winter of 2005/06, Cracknell took part in twos together with British TV presenter Ben Fogle in the Atlantic Rowing Race , a transatlantic regatta in ocean rowing . Fogle could barely row at the start of the race. In the seaworthy rowing boat "Spirit of EDF Energy" they were able to complete the 4700 kilometers as the fastest two in 49 days, 19 hours and 8 minutes. As they go, however capsized were causing to the stored in the boat ballast water had to use as drinking water, they were restored in accordance with rules and regarded as second-placed team. Cracknell and Fogle published their experiences of the Atlantic crossing in the book The Crossing: Conquering the Atlantic in the World's Thoughest Rowing Race .

Later he took part in the "Amundsen Omega3 South Pole Race 2008" in Antarctica with Ed Coats and again Ben Fogle . A distance of around 750 kilometers had to be covered in competition with four other teams, whereby all equipment had to be transported on sleds without aids. The BBC broadcast a multi-part documentary about the race.

Fonts

• James Cracknell, Ben Fogle: The Crossing: Conquering the Atlantic in the World's Thoughest Rowing Race . Atlantic Books, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-84354-512-5 .

Web links

• Official website of James Cracknell
• James Cracknell at Worldrowing.com ( FISA database )
• James Cracknell in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://spiegel.de/sport/sonst/boat-race-cambridge-bezwingt-oxford-im-ruder-klassiker-a-1261730.html
2. ^ Cassandra Jardine and Caroline Gammell: Tackling Antarctica - British trio race to the South Pole. The Daily Telegraph , December 26, 2008, accessed January 23, 2013 .